By Jordan Long
Most of us know Phil Jackson as one of the top coaches to ever coach in the NBA. There is more to Jackson than coaching. Jackson was a successful player in the NBA before he was a coach.
Jackson was originally drafted in 1967 by the New York Knicks in the 2nd round, 17th overall. During that time the NBA had 12 teams and the draft was 12 rounds. 162 players were drafted. Other players selected in the draft were Walt Frazier and Pat Riley.
Jackson was mostly a reserve player for the New York Knicks. He spent 1967 to 1978 with New York. During his time with the Knicks, Jackson didn’t score a whole lot. Back in those days, the NBA didn’t have the 3-point shot. The 3- pointer came into play for the 1979-1980 season. Jackson averaged 17.7 minutes per game and scored 6.8 points.
The best asset of his game was rebounding. His height at 6 foot 8 inches allowed him to box out the opponents for the ball. These equaled 2nd chance opportunities for his team when on offense and on defense, those started fast break chances. He grabbed 4.4 rebounds per game. New York went on to win 2 NBA championships with him, 1970 and 1973.
At the start of the 1978 NBA season, Jackson suited up for the New Jersey Nets. It lasted for 2 years. With the Nets, he averaged 16.9 minutes per game while scoring 5.9 points and adding 2.7 rebounds per game. At the end of 1980, Jackson decided to retire from basketball as a player.
Of course, we all know it wasn’t the end of him in the NBA. Jackson moved on to coaching. He was the assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls on Doug Collins’ staff from 1987 to 1989. The Bulls fired Collins after the 1989 season when the Bulls went 47-35. The problem with Collins was he didn’t take the Bulls to the NBA Championship. Chicago thought a changing of the guard at the Head Coaching position would help them.
Jackson spent 9 seasons as the Head Coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998. In that span, his record with the Bulls was an outstanding 545-193, an impressive winning percentage of .738. It helped that the Bulls had superstars in Michael Jordan who many consider the greatest basketball player to ever step foot on an NBA court, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoč, Steve Kerr, and Dennis Rodman. The Bulls never missed the playoffs under Jackson.
The Bulls made it to the NBA finals 6 times, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998. Every time they advanced to the Finals, they came away NBA champions. The top year for him coaching the Bulls was 1996. At the time they won a league record 72 games. Most people think that is the best team ever because they were able to beat the record for most wins in a regular season and take home the NBA championship. Their amount of wins stood until 2016 when Golden State totaled 73 but they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in game 7 of the Finals that year.
Jackson stepped away from the Chicago Bulls following the Bulls 1998 championship. He thought that was going to be the last time he would ever coach a team. He took over the L.A. Lakers in the 1999 to 2000 season. Jackson was with the Lakers until 2011. With L.A. the Lakers made the postseason every single year. The Lakers won 5 NBA championships under him.
After 2011 Jackson stopped coaching for good. He ended up with a career record of 1,155 wins and 485 losses for an outstanding winning percentage of .704. His wins rank 7th in NBA history.
Jackson wasn’t done with basketball. He took the job as President of Basketball Operations for the New York Knicks, agreeing to a 5-year contract on March 14th, 2014. It didn’t last long or go very well. Jackson stepped away from the Knicks on June 28th, 2017. He has not been in a front office of a team or been involved in the game of basketball since.
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